If there was a downside to Jim Hendry’s masterful acquisition of Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin, it was the fact that the Billy Beane blowers came out in full force to defend the trade. I like Billy Beane. I think he’s one of the top five general managers in the MLB. He has done more with the small-market Oakland Athletics–including their surprise contention in this year’s American League West–than most big-budget teams have. His strategy of taking advantage of undervalued statistics (and obtaining every possible statistic imaginable), which was so entertainingly and clearly explained in Michael M. Lewis’ Moneyball, was fantastically clever. But you might want to sit down for a minute, Minions of Moneyball. It is quite possible for Beane to make a bad trade. In fact, he’s made two of them with Jim Hendry alone in about 357 days. This is why articles like the one written by Tom Fornelli on Fanhouse entitled “What Does Billy Beane Know That We Don’t?” are stupid. And here’s why.

When I first found out yesterday that the Oakland Athletics had traded Rich Harden to the Cubs, my first reaction was “Why?” I didn’t even know who Oakland had gotten in return from the Cubs, and already the deal didn’t make that much sense to me.

Brilliant. So, if the Cubs had traded Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee, Carlos Zambrano, Alfonso Soriano, and Kosuke Fukudome to the A’s, picked up all of their salaries, and gotten Harden in return, your reaction would have been “Why?” I wish you were general manager of the Cardinals.

Then I heard who the A’s got, and the deal made even less sense to me.

Let me break it down for you. Your hero Billy Beane got depantsed by Jim Hendry, just like he was on July 16, 2007, when he traded the useful Jason Kendall to the Cubs for the completely worthless Rob Bowen(er) and Jerry Blevins. Though Bowen(er)(time) finished the 2007 season with the A’s on a high note, he’s back to absolute suck in 2008, as his current .222/.271/.311 line evidences. In the 7.3 innings Blevins has pitched, he has put up a 6.14 ERA and a 1.636 WHIP. Woof.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Matt Murton has the potential to flourish in Oakland as he’s finally found an organization that can appreciate what he’s capable of (Matt has struggled this season, but does still have a career OPS of .810 without ever getting regular playing time)…

I appreciate what he’s capable of. He’s capable of looking overmatched by the following: 95+ m.p.h. fastballs, routine pop flies, and the rules of baseball when he’s on the basepaths. Also, can you take your “he never had regular playing time” bullshit over to the former-letter? The dude played 144 games in 2006 and collected 455 at-bats. He hit okay. Not great, but okay. He fielded like a statue. The guy doesn’t have the power numbers to play left field like a miniature Adam Dunn.

…and Sean Gallagher could end up being a very effective pitcher for the Athletics.

Yes, he could. So, you think the A’s got two quality players? I’m not quite sure why you’re baffled by this deal so far.

Eric Patterson is probably just an insurance plan should Mark Ellis not re-sign with the team after the season, as the A’s are pretty thin at second base in the minors, and I don’t know anything about John Donaldson.

Yeah, don’t bother trying to learn anything about him. It’s not like you have the internet available to you to learn something before you wrote an article EVALUATING THE TRADE. I’m going to write a full-length review of the entire Battlestar Galactica series, despite the fact that I’ve only watched 4/5ths of the first season. It’ll be BRILLIANT!

But why now, Billy Beane? Why pull the trigger on this deal when your team is only five games out of first place in the AL West, and only 3.5 behind Boston for the wild card? There is no way that Beane can honestly think his team has a better shot at making the playoffs this season without Rich Harden.

Well, if you could be bothered to do any research, you would know that apparently the Cubs were the only team sniffing around Harden. It’s quite possible that both Beane and Hendry were aware that each start that Harden made with the A’s diminished his value to another team. Since they’re GMs. And you’re just some dude. You see, more starts = more value. Fewer starts = less value.

Yet, while on the surface this deal makes absolutely no sense to me…

It would make even less sense to you if you were aware of the fact that Chad Gaudin was also traded to the Cubs.

…I also realize that Beane knows what he’s doing and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Oh, good. Because I’m sure Beane would be DEVASTATED if he thought you, Tom Fornelli, weren’t his biggest supporter.

Maybe he’s just tired of being held hostage by Harden’s injury history and is tired of having to build a team around a pitcher who may or may not be available at any given time.

Or maybe he realizes, like Hendry does, that a history of injuries diminishes the trade value of a Major League Baseball player.

If you look at Beane’s history of letting his pitchers go, he seems to have great timing, as Mark Mulder and Barry Zito have never been the same since leaving the bay area.

Good comparison. Except for one problem. The only two teams who weren’t aware that Mulder and Zito were on the decline BEFORE they left Oakland were the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants. What’s your explanation for the success of Tim Hudson in Atlanta? Or Aaron Harang in Cincinnati? Or Dan Haren in Arizona? Oh, those guys don’t prove your half-assed, poorly-thought-out point? I see.

It’s still way too early to tell if this was a mistake or not, but I have to say, at the moment I don’t think this was one of Beane’s finest moment.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I just got whiplash. When the hell did this turn into an article AGAINST Beane? Just this last sentence? That’s one hell of a flip-flop. Since it’s still too early for you, let me get you up to speed. This was a great trade for the Cubs, and a bad trade for the A’s. Sometimes, Billy Beane makes the occasional boneheaded move.

Got it?

Good.